Our founder

The founder of SELAVIP is Father Josse van der Rest (1924 – 2020), a Jesuit priest born in Belgium, who lived in Chile from 1958 until his death.

With the vehemence that characterized him, Father van der Rest posed phrases that challenged us. One of them was: “the problem is not the house, but the land: with a piece of land the poor man is capable of building his own home.” He was outraged when land speculation in most of our cities deprived poor families of a lot that, although minimal, would allow them to develop their housing process over time and to the extent of their possibilities.

For Father van der Rest, very long-term solutions were not the only ones that mattered. He was interested in SELAVIP recognizing the urgent need for shelter for the poorest. Experience had taught him that the families of the urban poor often fall apart when they have to live overcrowded in the homes of relatives or acquaintances, or in conditions of extreme insecurity and precariousness.

That is why he insisted that “four boards are better now than a solid house in 10 more years” when the family had already broken up.

He was not satisfied with the positions adopted by many professionals and specialists in housing issues, who disqualified social emergency solutions because they did not seem worthy, and in the process condemned the poor to continue in misery for many years while waiting for those solutions “decent houses.”

He challenged them to put their feet in the mud, talk to the poor in their precarious housing, and take into account that what seems like bad housing from their position as well-off professionals turns out to be “a realistic and good solution for those who swim. “He has and needs a roof to spend the next night.”